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one hundred. But also in another superfluous one in addition to these, * apart from the gospel and the apostle; for it did not seem right to the most wretched Marcion to cite this testimony from the one to the Ephesians, but from the one to the Laodiceans, which is not in the apostle. Not foolishly encountering these, the brutish and miserable one, having fallen in many things, does not see the refutation against himself being confessed every day. And let no one marvel at this. For how could this one, having promised to have something of the gospel and of the apostle, not preserve at least a few words of the scripture? For when the whole body, so to speak, of the divine scripture was living, what dead member did he find according to his own opinion, so that he might introduce falsehood against the truth? But, so to speak, he mutilated and having dismembered, he cut off many of the members, but he retained some with himself. And the very things that were retained, being still alive, cannot be made dead, but have the vital force of expression, even if they were to be minutely cut away by him ten thousand times. 14. Further, after all these things, we recalled that some of the Marcionites themselves, having fallen into an abyss of blasphemy and having become altogether thunderstruck by their own demonic teaching, and of him whom they seemed to mention as lord, if only by name, 2.184 and turning away from his divinity in another way with unchecked tongue, are not ashamed to revile the name of the birth from above. For some of them have dared, as I said, unashamedly to say that the Lord himself is the son of the evil one, while others say not so, but of the judge and creator; and that having become more compassionate and being good, he left his own father below—some say the creator, others the evil one—and ran up above to the good God in unnameable places and attached himself to him; and having been sent by him into the world, Christ came to oppose his own father and to destroy all the things that his natural father decreed, that is, the one who spoke in the law, or the god of evil who is placed by them in the third principle. For they set it forth in different ways, as I said, one saying the creator, another the evil one. 15. These things are clear to anyone possessing understanding, that the mindset and the teaching are of an unclean spirit, and there was no need to make a defense concerning this hypothesis or to present a refutation against Marcion, who in all things has made a forgetting of life for himself. For his blasphemous empty talk and the bold work of his destruction will be detected by all the intelligent. But since we are accustomed not to leave a place for thorns, but to cut them out with the sword of God, "which is sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow," according to what is written, we shall not shrink from saying a few things about this as well. 16. For first, if a good one has come from an evil one, the argument about principles will no longer stand. For his father also, if he is evil—which may it not be, but he is good—is able to be changed in his mind, just as the one born of him has been changed. The second point: if the only-begotten came at all to save men and to lead a robber into paradise and to call a tax collector from the tax office 2.185 to repentance and to heal a prostitute anointing his feet from her prostitution, and indeed does other good things, because he is good and compassionate and merciful, much more then ought he to have taken up his pity for his own father and him

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ἑκατόν. ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐπ' ἄλλης περισσῆς πρὸς ἐπὶ τούτοις * ἐκτὸς τοῦ εὐαγγελίου καὶ τοῦ ἀποστόλου· οὐ γὰρ ἔδοξε τῷ ἐλεεινοτάτῳ Μαρκίωνι ἀπὸ τῆς πρὸς Ἐφεσίους ταύτην τὴν μαρτυρίαν λέγειν, ἀλλὰ τῆς πρὸς Λαοδικέας, τῆς μὴ οὔσης ἐν τῷ ἀποστόλῳ. αἷς μὴ ἐντυγχάνων ἠλιθίως ὁ κτηνώδης καὶ ἐν πολλοῖς πεσὼν ὁ τάλας οὐχ ὁρᾷ τὴν κατ' αὐτοῦ ἀνατροπὴν καθ' ἑκάστην ἡμέραν ὁμολογουμένην. καὶ μηδεὶς θαυμαζέτω περὶ τούτου. πῶς γὰρ ἠδύνατο οὗτος, ἐπαγγειλάμενος ἔχειν τι τοῦ εὐαγγελίου καὶ τοῦ ἀποστόλου, μὴ οὐχὶ κἂν ὀλίγα τῆς γραφῆς σῴζειν ῥήματα; ὅλου γὰρ τοῦ σώματος ζῶντος ὡς εἰπεῖν τῆς θείας γραφῆς, ποῖον ηὕρισκε μέλος νεκρὸν κατὰ τὴν αὐτοῦ γνώμην, ἵνα παρεισαγάγῃ ψεῦδος κατὰ τῆς ἀληθείας; ἀλλ' ὡς εἰπεῖν ἐλώβησε καὶ ἀκρωτηριάσας παρέκοψε πολλὰ τῶν μελῶν, κατέσχεν δὲ ἔνιά τινα παρ' ἑαυτῷ. καὶ αὐτὰ δὲ τὰ κατασχεθέντα ἔτι ζῶντα οὐ δύναται νεκροῦσθαι, ἀλλ' ἔχει μὲν τὸ ζωτικὸν τῆς ἐμφάσεως, κἄν τε μυρίως παρ' αὐτῷ κατὰ λεπτὸν ἀποτμηθείη. 14. Ἔτι δὲ μετὰ ταῦτα πάντα ἐπεμνήσθημεν ὡς τινὲς ἀπὸ τῶν αὐτῶν Μαρκιωνιστῶν, εἰς βυθὸν βλασφημίας παραπεπτωκότες καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς ἑαυτῶν δαιμονιώδους διδασκαλίας ἐμβρόντητοι παντάπασι γεγονότες καὶ οὗ ἐδόκουν κυρίου μόνον κἂν δι' ὀνόματος μνημονεύειν 2.184 καὶ αὐτοῦ ἀθυρογλώσσως ἑτέρως τὴν αὐτοῦ θεότητα ἀποστρέφοντες, τὸ ὄνομα τῆς ἄνωθεν γεννήσεως κακίζειν οὐκ ἐντρέπονται. τινὲς γὰρ αὐτῶν τετολμήκασιν, ὡς ἔφην, αὐτὸν τὸν κύριον εἶναι υἱὸν τοῦ πονηροῦ λέγειν οὐκ αἰσχυνόμενοι, ἄλλοι δὲ οὐχί, ἀλλὰ τοῦ κριτοῦ τε καὶ δημιουργοῦ· εὐσπλαγχνότερον δὲ γεγονότα καὶ ἀγαθὸν ὄντα καταλεῖψαι μὲν τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ πατέρα κάτω πῆ μὲν λεγόντων τὸν δημιουργόν, ἄλλων δὲ τὸν πονηρόν, ἄνω δὲ ἀναδεδραμηκέναι πρὸς τὸν ἐν ἀκατονομάστοις τόποις ἀγαθὸν θεὸν καὶ αὐτῷ προσκεκολλῆσθαι· πεμφθέντα δὲ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ εἰς τὸν κόσμον καὶ πρὸς ἀντιδικίαν τοῦ ἰδίου πατρὸς ἐλθόντα τὸν Χριστὸν καὶ καταλῦσαι αὐτοῦ τὰ πάντα ὅσα ὁ κατὰ φύσιν πατὴρ αὐτοῦ ἐνομοθέτει, ἤτοι ὁ λαλήσας ἐν τῷ νόμῳ ἤτοι ὁ τῆς κακίας θεὸς ὁ παρ' αὐτῶν ἐν τῇ τρίτῃ ἀρχῇ ταττόμενος. ἄλλως γὰρ καὶ ἄλλως ἐκτίθενται ὡς ἔφην, ἄλλος μὲν τὸν δημιουργὸν λέγων, ἄλλος δὲ τὸν πονηρόν. 15. Ταῦτα δὲ δῆλα παντί τῳ σύνεσιν κεκτημένῳ ὑπάρχει, ὅτι ἀκαθάρτου πνεύματός ἐστιν ἡ φρόνησις καὶ ἡ διδασκαλία καὶ οὔτε χρεία ἦν περὶ ταύτης τῆς ὑποθέσεως ἀπολογεῖσθαι ἢ ἔλεγχον παριστᾶν καταντικρὺ Μαρκίωνος τοῦ ἑαυτοῦ κατὰ πάντα τὴν ἐπιλησμονὴν τῆς ζωῆς ποιησαμένου. φωραθήσεται γὰρ παρὰ πᾶσι τοῖς συνετοῖς τὸ βλάσφημον αὐτοῦ κενοφώνημα καὶ τολμηρὸν τῆς ἀπωλείας ἐνέργημα. ἀλλ' ἐπειδὴ εἰώθαμεν μὴ ἐᾶν ἀκανθῶν τόπον, ἀλλὰ ἐκτέμνειν τῇ τοῦ θεοῦ μαχαίρᾳ, «τῇ ὑπὲρ πᾶσαν μάχαιραν δίστομον τομωτέρῳ καὶ διικνουμένῃ ἄχρι μερισμῶν ψυχῆς καὶ πνεύματος, ἁρμῶν τε καὶ μυελῶν» κατὰ τὸ γεγραμμένον, ὀλίγα καὶ εἰς τοῦτο εἰπεῖν οὐκ ἀποκνήσομεν. 16. Πρῶτον μὲν γὰρ ὅτι εἰ ἀγαθὸς ἐκ πονηροῦ γεγένηται, οὐκέτι τῶν ἀρχῶν σταθήσεται ὁ λόγος. δύναται γὰρ καὶ ὁ αὐτοῦ πατήρ, εἰ πονηρὸς ὑπάρχει ὅπερ μὴ γένοιτο, ἀλλὰ ἀγαθός ἐστι, μεταβληθῆναι τὴν γνώμην, ὥσπερ ὁ ὑπ' αὐτοῦ γεγεννημένος μεταβέβληται. τὸ δὲ ἕτερον· εἰ ὅλως ἦλθεν ὁ μονογενὴς ἀνθρώπους σῶσαι καὶ λῃστὴν εἰσαγαγεῖν εἰς παράδεισον καὶ τελώνην καλέσαι ἀπὸ τελωνίου 2.185 εἰς μετάνοιαν καὶ πόρνην ἀλείφουσαν αὐτοῦ τοὺς πόδας ἰάσασθαι ἀπὸ πορνείας, ἔτι δὲ καὶ ἄλλα ἀγαθὰ πράττει, διότι ἀγαθὸς ὑπάρχει καὶ εὔσπλαγχνος καὶ ἐλεήμων, πολλῷ οὖν μᾶλλον ἔδει ἐπὶ τὸν ἴδιον αὐτοῦ πατέρα τὸν οἶκτον αὐτοῦ ἀναλαβεῖν καὶ αὐτὸν